Recently, a method of constructing a structure using PC members, which are manufactured in a factory and carried to a construction site, was proposed and has been effectively used at construction sites to construct apartment buildings and office buildings.
For example, a representative conventional technique pertaining to the construction of a structure using PC members was proposed in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1998-068760 (date: Oct. 26, 1998), which was entitled ‘COUPLING STRUCTURE BETWEEN PC WALL AND PC SLAB OF STRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION METHOD THEREOF’.
In this conventional technique, lower PC wall panels, each of which has on the upper end thereof an upper connection part from which the ends of wall reinforcing bars protrude upwards, are installed. Thereafter, a half PC slab panel is horizontally placed on the upper ends of the adjacent lower PC wall panels. At this time, mounting parts of slab reinforcing bars, which extend outwards from the opposite ends of the half PC slab panel, are coupled to the upper connection parts of the adjacent lower PC wall panels, thus integrating the half PC slab panel with the lower PC wall panels. Subsequently, an upper PC wall panel is coupled to the upper end of each lower PC wall panel. At this time, a lower connection part, which is provided on the lower end of the upper PC wall panel, and from which the ends of wall reinforcing bars protrude downwards, is overlapped with and welded to the upper connection part of the lower PC wall panel, thus integrating the upper PC wall panel with the lower PC wall panel. At a construction site, fresh concrete is cast in a reinforcing bar coupling portion, in which the connection parts and the mounting parts are coupled to each other, and fresh concrete is cast on the upper surface of each half PC slab panel to form an integrated location-cast concrete plate.
As such, in the technique disclosed in the above publication, the upper and lower connection parts of the wall reinforcing bars, which are embedded in the upper and lower PC wall panels, are integrated with each other by welding in the overlapped state and are welded to the mounting parts of the slab reinforcing bars, which are embedded in the half PC slab panels. Thereafter, the reinforcing bar coupling portions, in which the upper and lower connection parts and the mounting parts are coupled to each other, are filled with concrete, and the location-cast concrete plates are formed on the upper surface of the half PC slab panels by applying concrete thereon. Therefore, a structure having a relatively large space therein and having relatively few stories can be constructed using only the PC walls and the PC slabs, without using separate posts or cross beams. Furthermore, the upper and lower PC wall panels and the half PC slab panel can be integrated with each other more securely, thus ensuring the satisfactory strength of the structure.
However, the conventional technique has the following disadvantages. First, because the conventional technique has a complex construction, in which the upper and lower connection parts of the wall reinforcing bars of the upper and lower PC wall panels and the mounting parts of the slab reinforcing bars of the half PC slab panels are gathered at one junction, that is, in the reinforcing bar junction, the work of constructing the PC walls and the PC slabs is more difficult, thus markedly reducing construction efficiency. In addition, it is difficult to completely pour fresh concrete into every portion of the reinforcing bar junction, at which the upper and lower connection parts of the wall reinforcing bars of the upper and lower PC wall panels and the slab reinforcing bars of the half PC slab panels are complicatedly coupled to each other. Thus, an opening may be undesirably formed in the cross-section of the reinforcing bar junction, with the result that the structural strength is decreased.
Second, the conventional technique uses a construction method in which, after the half PC slab panels are placed on the lower PC wall panels, the upper PC wall panels are coupled to respective lower PC wall panels coupled to the PC slab panels. Therefore, from the lowermost story to the uppermost story, the structure must be sequentially constructed using the PC walls and the PC slabs one story after another. As a result, there is a problem in that the time required to construct the structure using the PC members is excessively increased.